FAA approves hi-rise in Rosslyn

I mentioned this back in May but it seems that hi-rise proposed for Rosslyn got approved by the FAA. Construction is to start this summer.

On the road again

Just a quick blurb from a rest stop to let those concerned know we’re enroute. Traffic is pretty normal. So long as the snow holds off, we’ll be fine.

Just in case any of the rest of you turned your backs…

The past couple of days have been busy with quite a chunk of our extended family getting together and a small remembrance of my father on the occasion of what would have been his 73rd birthday. It was so busy that I did not have the occasion to even open my laptop, let alone make my normal rounds of the news and blog sites. That’s how I missed until this morning the news that former Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto has been assassinated.

My sympathies are extended to Ms. Bhutto’s family and friends, as is my utter contempt for the swine who ordered and executed the attack. This event has thrown Pakistan into chaos, a condition no one needed, given Pakistan’s role in the GWOT. Given that they’re also a nuclear power…. well, it’s just not good.

I need time to learn more but I wanted to pass this along to any of the rest of you who, like me, may have had other things taking up your time.

Merry Christmas to all

May the Peace of God be with you on this joyous Christmas morning.

All of us at HoodaThunk? wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. See you tomorrow.

NORAD tracking Santa

For those of you interested in sharing a special treat with the kids in your life, check out the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center on-line. Current location of Santa’s sleigh with special SantaCam vids were a real hit in this house tonite.

Here’s hoping you all find the best under the tree tonite and tomorrow. I’ll see you then…

Illegals packing up and leaving Arizona due to employment crackdowns

Illegals in Arizona are finding it harder and harder to get work after new laws cracking down on businesses who employ illegals were passed. Now, there’s evidence they’re packing up and heading back to Mexico – or other US states. The whining about how oppressive it all is and how we poor, stupid Americans will have our economy crash into the ground because we just can’t keep the machine running without those wonderful illegals to makes things work has started. But there’s no argument that the illegals are leaving.

Wasn’t this what people said wouldn’t happen?

Those of us who are serious about the illegal problem have long said that cracking down on the employers who assist illegals in breaking the law would be an integral part of the solution. Well, that part is clearly working. So let’s get all the states doing this, secure that border, and deport illegals who are caught breaking other laws and we’ll see this issue seriously dry up. Good going, AZ!

Surfing at 30,000 feet – proximity in airplanes might make internet access a more social problem than technical

Accessing the Internet while flying from point A to point B has been a secret desire of many since the dawn of more ubiquitous public access capability. While laptops have been letting busy execs turn flight time into (semi-) productive time for quite a while, the link to the Internet and the head office has been a missing one. Airlines have been working with several companies to fill that gap and some are ready to put it into full production. The problems they’re looking into now are more the social ones than the technical ones:

Seat 17D is yapping endlessly on an Internet phone call. Seat 16F is flaming Seat 16D with expletive-laden chats. Seat 16E is too busy surfing porn sites to care. Seat 17C just wants to sleep.

Welcome to the promise of the Internet at 33,000 feet — and the questions of etiquette, openness and free speech that airlines and service providers will have to grapple with as they bring Internet access to the skies in the coming months.

Considering the level of “etiquette” in use these days by cell phone users who insist on holding personal conversations at medium-high volume not 2 feet from you I’m a more than a little concerned about these social aspects. While it would likely not affect me at all to have the guy in the seat next to me go browsing the latest nudie site or watch the trailer for the latest slasher flick, I’d have a real problem with him doing so with my 6-year-old in the seat between us. Some airlines are talking about filtering content for their internet access as well as blocking some voice services such as Skype. Others are not.

Meanwhile, American, Alaska and Virgin have no plans to filter sites based on their content. At most, an airline may manage traffic and delay large downloads, or in Virgin’s case give passengers the option of enabling controls for their kids.

“We think decency and good sense and normal behavior” will prevail, said Jack Blumenstein, chief executive of Aircell LLC, which is launching service on some American and Virgin flights in 2008. 

Uhhh… right. I’m not sure where Mr. Blumenstein is living but I’ve got considerably less faith in that. In the end, the airlines can only do what any business does: put out the product and see if it sells without generating too many complaints. I wish them luck in that.

Holiday travels

Like many of my fellow Americans I’m traveling for the holidays which puts blogging on the back burner. I’m trying to find some time here and there to post stuff but you might find gaps in my posting coverage. Bear with me.

Please let me take the moment to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. May God send all the best your way in this season and in the year to come.

Bob Krumm’s analytical mind: Thompson is the choice for nominee

Via Instapundit, I see that Bob Krumm has done an analytical case showing Fred Thompson to be the best candidate for the GOP nominee for President. Obviously, I agree and his reasoning is both sound and well communicated. Go have a look.

J. Russell Coffey, one of last remaining WWI vets, dead at 109

He was one of only 3 remaining WWI vets still living. With the passing of J. Russell Coffey, there are now only 2. Coffey enlisted in the Army in 1918 but did not get deployed overseas before the end of the war. In his 109 years he was a soldier, semi-pro baseball player, a doctor in education, both a high school and college teacher, and a family man.

J. Russell Coffey, born 1 September 1898, died 20 December 2007.

(See also Veterans and the pass of history from living memory.)